Weaver, Emma, Bowring, Anna, Guy, Rebecca, van Gemert, Caroline, Hocking, Jane, Boyle, Douglas, Merritt, Tony, Heal, Clare, Lau, Phyllis, Donovan, Basil, and Hellard, Margaret (2014) Re-attendance and chlamydia retesting rates at 12 months among young people attending Australian general practice clinics 2007–10: a longitudinal study. Sexual Health, 11 (4). pp. 366-369.

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Abstract

Background: Clinical guidelines commonly recommend annual chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis) testing in young people. General practice (GP) clinics can play an important role in annual testing, as a high proportion of young people attend these clinics annually; however, little is known about the timing of attendance and testing in this setting.

Methods: The Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Blood-Borne Viruses system extracted consultation and pathology data on 16–29-year-olds attending 25 GP clinics in 2007–10. We calculated the proportion of individuals with an initial negative test that reattended at 12 months (±3 months) and retested at 12 months (±3 months). Individuals with an initial positive test were excluded, as guidelines recommend retesting at 3 months.

Results: Among 3852 individuals who had an initial negative test, 2201 (57.1%) reattended at ~12 months; reattendance was higher among females (60.8%) than males (44.1%; P < 0.001) and higher among 16–19-year-olds (64.2%) than 25–29-year-olds (50.8%; P < 0.001). Of 2201 individuals who reattended at 12 months, 377 had a chlamydia test (retesting rate of 9.8%); retesting was higher among females (10.8%) than males (6.1%; P < 0.01) and higher among 16–19-year-olds (13.3%) than 25–29-year-olds (7.5%; P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Although over half of young people re-attended their GP clinic ~1 year after a negative chlamydia baseline test, only 9.8% were retested at this visit. Strategies are needed to promote regular attendance and testing to both patients and clinicians.

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